Charles Ellicott Commentary Romans 12:13

"communicating to the necessities of the saints; given to hospitality." — Romans 12:13 (ASV)

Distributing to the necessity of saints.—By “saints” is meant here simply “Christians.” So, in Ephesians 1:1, we find the salutation addressed to the saints which are at Ephesus. (Acts 26:10.) The reference is to the well-known poverty of the early Christian communities.

Necessity.—Some of the Græco-Latin manuscripts and Fathers read here, memories, or commemorations, by a slight change of letters, “taking part in the commemorations of the saints,” as if the allusion was to the later ecclesiastical usage of holding festivals in honour of martyrs. The best manuscripts are wonderfully free from corruptions of this kind, and even inferior manuscripts admit them to a much smaller extent than might have been expected. Other examples would be the insertion of the phrase “and fasting” in Mark 9:29, and the addition of the doxology to the Lord’s prayer in Matthew 6:13.